A grim visit in beautiful Alsace
 

This week I was in my grandmother's ancestral village in the Vosges mountains, and I decided that I was due to a visit of one of the sights only 25 kilometers away, just over the pass on the Alsatian side of the mountains.

It is the Struthof-Natzweiler (Natzwiller) Nazi death camp, the only such place to have been located on French soil. My first visit was when I was 7 years old and the war had ended fewer than 20 years earlier. The place is still as stark as it was back then, but it serves as a permanent reminder of how lucky my family was.

Here is the photo report that I made: http://tinyurl.com/struthof

Powerful and poignant photo essay, Kerouac. Your personal connection with the village truly makes this story come "alive". Thank you for sharing this.

I am having a hard time finding words to express my feelings. Progol says it all and says it well. Thank you for sharing and thank you Progol for putting words to my thoughts and emotions.

ttt

Can't say it any better than progol.

From here in Austria, "Niemals Vergessen." Never Forget.

Thank you, Kerouac.

Thank you for posting this. Prior to your photo essay, I had been aware that there were concentration camps in France, but I did not realize that there was a death camp there.

While it is difficult to look at these pictures, they are important to see.

Thanks so much for this report.

Kerouac, let me add my thanks for sharing this sobering experience.


The fate of French victims of the Holocaust has always interested me, and your tour of Natzwiller Death Camp brings their stories to life again.


Many of those Jews killed thought that their connections/wealth/social position would save them until it was too late. Examples: the well-known novelist IRENE NEMIROVSKY, deported and killed in 1942; and the daughter and grandchildren of NISSIM DE CAMONDO whose residence near Parc Monceau remains one of the most delightful small museums in Paris.


http://www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr/engl...e-camondo-742/

Very touching Kerouac.

Latedaytraveler, in this particular death camp, the Jews were actually a small minority because it was mostly for political prisoners.

The largest number of prisoners were Polish, followed by Soviet and French. About 25,000 people died there... and 82 managed to escape.

Kerouac, interesting. Amazing the number of death camps throughout Europe during the Nazi era.

Thank you.

wow-Kerouac, interesting pictures.

Very sobering experience. Thanks for the interesting pictures.

Years ago, while aimlessly driving around the countryside we
came across this horrible place by accident. Even though we
drove by the outside we could feel a sense of the evil that
went on inside. Thank you for showing a glimpse of what went
on in this hell on earth.

Natzweiler was a so called "Nacht und Nebel" camp, especially meant to "disappear" political prisoners. "Annihilation through work" was the main purpose of the camp.

an impressive testimony, in Dutch, to Roessingh, a Dutch survivor of Natzweiler (you'll have to Google translate it, sorry)

http://historiek.net/held-van-de-maa...essingh/19435/

good reminder to think that these resistance fighters were invariably called "terrorists" by the german authorities.

Thank you Kerouac, very interesting pictures

Sobering indeed. I have chills looking at these! Thank you!